The governors' club: Examining gubernatorial power, influence, and policy-making in the context of statewide education reform in the South.

摘要

In a brief span of years in the early 1980s, Southern governors from Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina spearheaded successful efforts to convince their states to adopt significant education reform. In so doing, they helped to establish the concept of the modern "education governor." This study considers two central questions related to these events: (1) What contributed to the development of Southern governors into education policy leaders during this critical period? and (2) What lessons from these reform efforts and institutional changes might be applicable to broader questions of gubernatorial power and governor-led policy reform? The study presents a more fully-realized picture of the integrated parts of an education governorship than exists in current scholarship. It also introduces the concept of the executive leadership moment as a lens for situating changes in executive leadership within a broader set of historical forces. Finally, it suggests that future analyses of gubernatorial power will benefit from a consideration of governors not as isolated and independent actors within state contexts who are beholden to prescribed formal powers but instead as networked actors who are able to change their political environments and operate in policy contexts that are not limited by state or regional boundaries.